Sci-fi books on AR & VR
3 books I recently took on holiday with me had a focus on augmented and virtual reality. Apart from the times I’d discovered a new writer and spent months reading their back catalogue, this was the first time that I’d…
It’s not science fiction: human-computer interaction in 2016
A recording from a talk I gave with Mike T at Dev Week 2016, rather enjoyed this one. Abstract As technologists we are pretty bad at coming up with new ideas. Instead we often look to literature and films for…
Digital Patina – showing signs of wear / use on a digital interface
Following on from my previous post on digital patina, I wondered if there’s another way to look at this. This isn’t something I’ve seen, I’m not sure if I want to see it and it could go against the very…
Digital Patina
NB – cross posted from http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/developers/articles/week04jun15/digital-patina/ Patina Patina for me, is a measure of authenticity, it’s visual or haptic feedback that a product has seen plenty of use over a period of time. It’s the wear in a car’s leather…
Making waiting at pedestrian crossings more entertaining
Since we removed humans from the road crossing process our junctions and traffic lights for pedestrians have become pretty dull. But here’s 2 examples that make the waiting process a little more entertaining. There is a school of thought that…
Drawing Shakespeare on a Surface Pro 3 using Fresh Paint
A few years back, tablet artist Paul Kerkal introduced me to drawing on a tablet. Windows 8 tablets are particularly well suited to this, especially the new Surface Pro 3 which has over 250 levels of pressure sensitivity and Palm…
Creating game audio by Microsoft Soundlab
Microspotting: Inside Soundlab Ever wondered what the connection there might be between a leek and a femur? Perhaps they sound the same when they break? Not one for vegetarians – watch the complete disregard for fruit and vegetables in this…
Most viewed picture of all time?
Photographer Charles O’Rear tells the story behind the Windows XP desktop wallpaper known as, Bliss.
Quick generation of Windows 8 app tile and visual assets
In order to take advantage of the different screen resolutions and pixel densities that your Windows apps will be displayed at, you’ll need to output some of your apps’ bitmap assets at different sizes – this is to factor in…